There are good arguments and bad arguments, valid arguments and invalid arguments. And then, in another category, there are sadistic arguments. Unfortunately, we’ve witnessed a few of those this week on the subject of tax reform.
Senator Ted Cruz, as always, led the charge, and he did so on the floor of the United States Senate. Tuesday night, Cruz was arguing in favor of the just-passed tax reform bill. Many (including our own Matt Labash) have pointed out that the just-passed tax reform bill will in fact raise taxes on some Americans, after accounting for a reduction in marginal tax rates but the curtailment of so many deductions. According to the Tax Policy Center, about 80 percent of taxpayers would receive a tax cut next year, but about five percent would face an increase averaging to about $2,800. But Ted Cruz said not to worry: “Every taxpayer, their taxes are going down, except rich people in Manhattan and San Francisco, some of them, their taxes may go up,” he declared. Get it? Because rich Democrats in liberal cities like New York and San Francisco are going to be punished, the law is a good thing. Let’s punish our partisan enemies through the tax code, in other words. (Lois Lerner, call your office.)
The once respected writer Dinesh D’Souza made a similar argument on that breeding ground of sadistic arguments, Twitter.
I’d like to see wealthy people fleeing states like NY, NJ, IL & CA. That would cause these blue states & their Democratic Party to implode
— Dinesh D’Souza (@DineshDSouza) December 21, 2017
Not only is this strategically moronic from a Republican point of few—should Democrats flee those states, they’ll only ensure that neighboring Nevada, Arizona, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, become solidly Democratic—it’s also another argument for policy as a form of sadism. He wants California to “implode” because it has too many Democrats. How patriotic.
On the other end of the spectrum, we have Democratic representative Ted Lieu. Lieu says the tax law is bad because some people will be jealous of others’ better fortune:
GOP underestimates how people feel when they know others got a better deal. If Sally gets a tax cut of $380 but others get $200,000, she will be upset. And wait until Joe finds out he is getting a tax increase for residing in CA. That’s why tax bill is so unpopular: human nature. https://t.co/uPr9aWBAsn
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) December 20, 2017
In other words, it’s not the policy itself is bad for the country: It’s that some people will be doing better than others as a result. “I can only feel good if others are doing worse than me.”
